Daniel Keegan

This workshop explored the impact of youth sports on adolescents and their families. Topics included sport-specific training, fostering balance in the lives of adolescents, and the promise and possibility of an athletic scholarship. Participants examined the role they play in promoting a competitive spirit while also supporting good sportsmanship, fellowship, leadership, and fun.

Working to marry the C3 Frameworks, CCSS, and the new New York State Frameworks for Social Studies, the NYS Toolkit was created to strengthen the inquiry approach in classrooms throughout New York - and the country. Teachers participating in this mandated course worked to align existing curricula with the Inquiry Design Model. The strength of this work were the teacher-created inquiries, which honored the skills of each teacher and fostered ownership of this instructional approach to questioning.

This workshop provided strategies to help teachers build a flipped lesson and/or unit. The effective use the flipped/blended model can promote deep student engagement and a personalized application of learning. Apps that were explored include Zaption, EDpuzzle, and Vialogues.

This workshop provided strategies to promote the speaking and listening skills of all students. Cooperative activities as varied as Inside the Circle, Outside the Circle, the Partner Museum Tour, and the Artist’s Window were actively explored. Each workshop participant left with instructional strategies that could be brought back to the classroom to engage students.

This workshop provided  participants with strategies to assess student understanding utilizing non-traditional but educationally significant platforms. Some of the platforms explored include Aurasma, TouchCast, Garage Band, iMovie, Thinglink, Watchup, & Toontastic. Each workshop participant designed a lesson or unit that was to be assessed by a student-created presentation using an app that highlights creativity, skill growth, and content understanding.

Participants explored the ways in which a student’s cultural heritage and life experiences may impact classroom production and school success. Case studies were investigated and real-world examples provided to bring contemporary cases to the forefront. Participants took take part in role-playing activities to promote effective student engagement and social and emotional growth.

This cross-disciplinary professional development course examined the types of questions incorporated in classrooms throughout Oceanside. Oceanside staff members learned how to design compelling questions - defined as disciplinary significant and student friendly - as a means to engage students in relevant and challenging coursework.

Like our favorite Hollywood movies, the best lessons capture the attention and interest of students within the first few minutes. Workshop participants examined strategies and techniques that can be used to successful engage students in varied lessons across multiple disciplines. Participants explored the ways in which varied media help students access lesson content, the role of student movement and play, and the importance of connecting to the background knowledge of students. Each workshop participant developed instructional strategies that could be brought back to the classroom to engage students.